At Death's Door (Confessions)
by negiro
Summary: A wonderful and tragic story regarding Shadow The Hedgehog and his prison statements. Old dreams, hopes, memories, and confessions come to light. A one-shot.


**Inspired in: first of all the video and the song **_**"Hurricane"**_** by 30 Seconds to Mars –the scenes and the lyrics not only meant something to me, it made me fall over the whole idea for the main plot in this story; the book "**_**El Occiso"**_** by the Bolivian writer María Virginia Estenssoro, she had such a great talent in life, I can totally recommend her; some concepts –can't name them all, they're too many (some of them are: Death, Pain, Destiny, Flight, Sun/Moon, Harmony, Power, Hope, Revival, Oxidation, Inhumanity/Beastly, Memoirs, Love/Innocence, Remorse, Destroyed, Wrists – Handcuffs, Experiences, Wisdom, Thoughts – Emotions, Energy, Profoundly, Dark, Delight, Balance, Truth, Irony, Cold, Synthesize, Mortals, Feel, Think, Live, Soul, Oracle/Prophecy, Time, etc…); and a quote from F.W. Nietzsche, in **_**"Portofino"**_**.**

**Special thanks: To my old friend Dante (he**_** was**_** Sonishi in DeviantArt) for bringing me so much inspiration through…him. And I mean everything he made: his art, his artistic preferences, everything he was! I certainly don't know if he's in , but I don't want to be so stubborn, so if you're here, thanks for that kindness in your notes. You are really someone who changed me in someway.**

**Note: **

**This fanfiction is divided in two sections: **_**Chapter I**_**, and **_**Chapter II –**_**they both come together since this is a one-shot. To either read them together or by separate pieces is up to you. However, I can tell **_**Chapter I**_** is quite shorter than **_**Chapter II**_**, which is the longest one.**

**Okay, so this is all for now. Remember I have rated this story 'T' (+13). Have a happy reading.**

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_Chapter I: Memories and Regrets_

_My life was perfect. I was perfect. My past was perfect..._

_... But that entire story would break down in just one blink of an eye._

The focus's luminary based in krypton gas flickered altering the lights and shadows of my room in prison. In fact, I was seeing it more like a madhouse, because thanks to it I had no longer access to some nocturne delights, so I could no longer take the liberty to implement homicides in the city nor to investigate more about the G.U.N Force's intentions or to keep searching the body of Maria, the only one I remembered, so I couldn't move so easily here been supervised by so many different entities.

I wasn't conserving any weapon. The same night I was brought here I'd been inspected and they inhibited me all the shipment I was carrying, and that, of course, including the Chaos Emerald, which was the first thing they took off from me. I was spending one and a half weeks here, and I already knew how was going the system on this jail. In fact, it was quite simple: some would come but go away quick, others would stay some time longer, but the majority was spending years of sentence.

My case was different.

Tomorrow I would be transferred to another prison, a different prison just for souls sentenced to turn off, to bid farewell to all those virtues that brings life: To senses, to feelings, to emotions.

And to love.

I'd forget the past or, rather to say, I'd disconnect from it… From the past, from the future... From time, from the universe. Then where would I be? Does it truly exist, then, that hooded being called Death? Is there, then, a place where arrive the ones who die? Could I, then, find Maria there, in the Afterlife? Or is it about who would ascend to a Heaven and who would go down to a Hell?

I displaced myself to the window and watched the starry sky half-closing my eyes...

_Where is your God?_

I closed my eyes, returning to the feel of the warm darkness, and the question resounded in my mind as a whispering echo while my mind focused the countenance of a girl, a girl of long golden mane, a sweet smile, a pair of big, dreamy eyes, and a pale skin. And a smile lighted up in my face.

- - - X X X - - -

_Chapter II:__The Time Has Come_

_My life was perfect. I was perfect. My past was perfect..._

_... But that entire story would break down in just one blink of an eye._

_A stroke… a line… two curves... A mark…_

The day had arrived. I knew I could have escaped at the meantime they were relocating me. I could have torn apart their craniums at four per second. But I took a different choice. This time I wouldn't escape from demise. This time I wouldn't take a step; I wouldn't move a finger. I wouldn't do anything to avoid what the destiny may bring.

I looked at the outlines of my drawing.

"It is her", I thought.

I had a one and only memory of her, but I'd remember it so vividly, so in detail, that getting confused in any feature of hers, any crease, any beauty spot, would be simply impossible to me.

_It's as if everything had just been yesterday…_

But the memory, she and my whole life, everything would turn away from me. Continuing with the sketching, giving the best of me, I opened my mind to her, to the past.

I finished the last line of her lips, of her smile, and I went to contemplate her from my cell's stretcher.

Maria… That unpredictable child had taken my heart away; she had left my life without neither arms nor legs, even headless. She had left my spirit fading and disarmed like a soldier at war. She was my Mona Lisa, the heart of all mysteries, the rareness of my past. I was blaming myself for loving her being unaware of her true personality. Not even recalling her emotionally; not even recognizing what kind of relationship I had with her.

There was just the hope of finding her back after Death…

I fell asleep for some hours, and luckily no one wanted to awaken me due to the calm I had for that moment in my last day alive. It was somehow an exotic dream, with blurry visions and distorted images. I sat in the stretcher, a little disturbed, not remembering a good deal of the dream. I remember that at some point I was staring at myself drowsing in my cage…

Suddenly heavy steps were heard from the end of the hallway, where I saw a man with a very threatening appearance coming this way. His shoulders were so wide he looked like a living giant wall, and a black mask covered his face. The man arrived to my prison room and he opened the door with a handful of keys in his closed hand. I perceived a smile behind his darkened mask.

"It's time" he said, his voice rough and thick.

I lowered the gaze.

_**Your time is nigh…**_

I looked deeply into the drawing I had set myself in the wall. After a second I stood up as I said:

"I'm ready."

He moved aside to let me go out of my cage and go ahead of him. Nevertheless, I just took two steps out of the cage and he already grabbed me skillfully in case I was trying to escape. I felt like a machine was holding me firmly; this individual had an extraordinary strength. I didn't struggle to free myself because I knew whatever I'd do there was no escape anyway. We moved forward through the corridor with gas lights in the ceiling. Yes, it was night already. Dusk had fallen so briskly… It was as if the day got quite accelerated.

We walked through a longer hallway, hospital-looking, but more like a troubling place. The tough man opened the door in the bottom, and I found innumerable masses of people. I bet at least half of them were familiar. When they noticed me everyone stood up and broke in a general applause, as if this had suddenly turned out to be a highly expected show. I didn't stop myself to recognize them. I neither wanted nor needed to know who were the ones smiling mockingly against me, and were acclaiming gleefully at the Death of Shadow The Hedgehog.

Another tough man wearing a black mask approached then, and with the help of the other one they curtly sat me in a chair. However, this _chair_, unlike the ones I'd see in the multitude, was a lot larger, with cables and chains here and there. The two men made sure of tying up my wrists and heels.

Therefore a voice spoken in chorus was increasing in the mass, every time they were more, yelling at the same time: "_kill-him-now_! _Kill-him-now_...!" I felt something was placed over my head, and right in that moment, when I was distracted by the vile and stupid choir, I saw him. Sonic The Hedgehog, perched in the first row, right in front of me. For a tenth of a second, our glances intercepted each other, and, just after that, my head was covered and tied by a black bag. The crowd went crazy, totally euphoric, unstoppably excited. I smiled behind the black bag. _How lovely, the way they adore me. I'd like to see the ones staying here so I can remember them after I die._

Then the water came. And that's when the silence spread over.

I felt how the water crept as snakes round my head, face, to my chest.

People were so quiet they looked like holding their breaths. They were anxious. Now was the moment for the sign, and then the hangman would do the rest.

_My life was perfect. I was perfect. My past was perfect..._

_... But that entire story would break down in just one blink of an eye._

I closed my eyes. Five… Four… Three… Two…

One.

I heard the lever's creak when it moved, and the pain came immediately.

_Do you really want…?_

I yelled 'till my throat tore; the electricity was going over my body burning even to my bones.

_Do you really want me?_

I'd bend my back and caused my fingers to stand on end in a contortion out of control. I had lost control.

_Do you really want me dead or alive…?_

The shout lasted until I felt my veins explode; I was bleeding inside and outside, and just then, when light corralled me, my senses died out and I submerged myself into the true darkness.

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**I will be attentive to any critique and/or review. It will always be welcomed. I'm sure there might be some mistakes in this fic… !**

**I am not a professional writer, thus the story plot may not be that **_**good**_** as I've noticed well-planned original storylines use to be. I still have a lot to learn. That's the reason why I'll be looking forward for your reviews, and I'll be more than glad to receive your criticism too –English mistakes or anything. Also, any questions can be solved.**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Negiro**


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